It is well known in the art to kill poultry by cutting off the head of poultry completely or to at least cut the neck of the poultry in a manner to cut the jugular veins one or both of the two carotid arteries and to sever the vagus nerves. The latter operation is usually carried out while the bird is in a hanging upside down position being supported by its legs on shackles. The shackles are conventionally pivotally mounted by a yoke to a fitting having bifurcated means and rollers thereon, the rollers are mounted whereby they roll on the horizontal surface of an I-beam at either side of the vertical connecting web portion of the I-beam. A plurality of the fittings are equidistantly spaced and secured to an endless cable by suitable clamping means.
Stunners are known whereby a bird which is fitted alive and upside down to a conventional shackle is then passed on an endless conveyer means into contact with saline solution which has one side of an electric current. The other side of the electric current is applied to the birds through the metal shackles. When the so grounded bird touches the electrically charged saline solution the bird is stunned whereby it is lulled into essentially a quiesient mode necessary to avoid frantic efforts on the part of the bird as it approaches the downstream stations such as the killing and neck breaking stations. Frantic activity can cause dislocation of joints leading to the rejection of birds.
The prior art devices are constructed to deal with a single size of shackle and a narrow range of sizes of birds. In other words the relationship of dimensions between the distance of the said I-beam and the saline solution is not variable. At the same time the egress into the bath is not constructed to adequately control the bird as it thrashes about as it is conveyed as heretofore mentioned.